Status review of challenge, constraints and needs of men, women, and youth enterprises in the bean value chain in selected countries

Common bean is the most grown legume in sub-Saharan Africa and contributes to income and food security of smallholder farmers. The common bean value chain offers business opportunities to various actors, particularly women because of their high involvement in production and marketing. The value chain has the potential to contribute to SDGs if opportunities are harnessed through developing and supporting SMEs and entrepreneurs. Nonetheless, challenges and constraints undermine the contribution of the common bean to livelihoods and incomes of actors along the chain. Key challenges are low use of improved seed, weak market linkages, lack of machinery and equipment, limited access to credit by value chain actors, context-specific barriers that undermine women and youth involvement, and lack of storage facilities. These challenges highlight needs for men, women, and youth entrepreneurs. The Improving Bean Production and Marketing in Africa (IBPMA) project responded to the challenges faced by farmers and entrepreneurs in common bean value chain in 31 countries in sub-Saharan Africa through innovative programs. PABRA used the corridor approach to implement the project. This desk review was conducted to identify needs of men, women, and youth enterprises in bean value chain in countries targeted by the IBPMA project. Specifically, the report aimed to: • Identify types of challenges and constraints experienced at different stages of the common bean value chain in six selected countries in the nine PABRA bean corridors. • Better understand gender differences in challenges experienced by entrepreneurs at different stages of the common bean value chain. • To identify areas of need for men and women entrepreneurs that are central to improving the performance and sustainable growth of bean enterprises. The review reveals challenges and constraints experienced by men, women, and youth entrepreneurs and SMEs across bean corridors. Financial, technical, capacity, technological and context-specific challenges impede performance and growth of entrepreneurs and SMEs. There is need for interventions in these areas to support SMEs and individual entrepreneurs and strengthen competitiveness of bean value chains

Sustainability of the agri-food supply chain amidst the pandemic: Diversification, local input production, and consumer behavior

This chapter shows how sustainability in agri-food supply chains has been hampered or enhanced during the pandemic. We demonstrate this by applying pathways that producers and consumers in sub-Saharan Africa pursued during the pandemic, as Schmitt et al. (2016) argued. The chapter focuses primarily on two Sub-regions in sub-Saharan Africa: Eastern and Southern Africa. The data used are drawn from a survey conducted by the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture in collaboration with National agricultural research partners in nine countries. Six countries in Eastern Africa countries; Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, and three countries in Southern Africa; Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Because of small samples per country and acknowledgment that they are not representational of the status of agri-food systems’ sustainability in the focus countries, we classify them as cases and present them under different sustainability themes: localized input supply and food system sustainability, diversification and Resilience, and consumer behavior

Gender and social inclusivity analysis in the common bean seed system in Burundi

Increasing agricultural productivity, food security and nutrition require inclusive seed systems that delivers quality seed to farmers. However, seed systems development in sub-Saharan Africa often focuses on needs of the large commercial producers, rather than the needs of the smallholder farmers, especially women. This study assessed gender issues in Burundi's seed common bean seed sector to generate gender-specific indicators that can guide development of inclusive seed systems. The results indicated that despite women allocating more land areas to bean varieties, they had limited array of sources of seed and accessed lower volumes of seed from formal outlets. Increasing access to agricultural extension services and training for women, ensuring that women farmers have access to quality seed varieties, providing access to financial services, such as credit and loans, for women farmers, and increasing access to markets for women farmers could enable Burundi seed systems to become more gender inclusive

Analysis of common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) trade in Cameroon: A trader's perspective of preferred varieties and market traits

Common beans contribute towards enhancing food and nutritional security in developing countries. Producing the right varieties entails that the interest of all value chain actors, like traders (wholesalers, retailers, and aggregators), are considered in developing breeding priorities to meet local and export market demand. However, there is little or no information on traders' perspectives regarding the preferred common bean traits and variety; hence, this study sought to fill the gap. This study aimed to analyse common bean trade in Cameroon by focusing on the trader's perspective of preferred varieties and market traits. A market survey was conducted in August 2021. Four regions of Cameroon (Adamawa, Centre, West, and Littoral) were purposively selected based on accessibility, and high concentration of bean traders and are considered the major bean distribution and consumption hubs. A two-stage random sampling was then used to select 175 traders. Data was gathered using a semi-structured questionnaire and analysed descriptively using Excel and STATA 14 software. The results indicated that 80% of bean trade was with Gabon and Congo. The majority of the sampled traders were men, as more men are involved in the bean business. Also, the majority of the traders did not participate in contract farming arrangements. Two market classes of beans were popular: red and white beans. The red beans were popular in the market probably due to good market traits such as affordability, good taste, high yield and early maturity. White bean market class was popular in the export market. Conversely, the black bean market class was the least preferred in the market. The most preferred market traits for improved common beans were good taste and acceptability by buyers. White beans fetched the highest wholesale (1.72 USD) and retail (1.41 USD) prices per kg on the market. Conversely, black beans fetched the lowest wholesale (0.8 USD) and retail (0.75 USD) prices per kg on the market. We recommend that common bean breeders should involve traders as important stakeholders whose market intelligence can be useful in developing improved bean varieties, which are demand-driven. Also, governmental and non-governmental agencies should promote improved common bean varieties to enhance productivity that meets the high demand in local and export markets. Besides, they should promote traders' participation in contract farming arrangements to enhance the steady supply of improved common beans on the market

Immediate impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on bean value chain in selected countries in sub-Saharan Africa

Africa's agriculture and food systems were already grappling with challenges such as climate change and weather variability, pests and disease, and regional conflicts. With rising new cases of COVID 19 propelling various African governments to enforce strict restrictions of varying degrees to curb the spread. Thus, the pandemic posed unprecedented shocks on agriculture and food supply chains in Sub Saharan Africa. In this study, we use survey data collected from nine countries in Central, Eastern, and Southern, Africa to understand the immediate impact of COVID-19 on production, distribution, and consumption of common beans, and possible food security implications. Descriptive analysis of data collected from bean farmers, aggregators, processors, bean regional coordinators, and mechanization dealers reveal that COVID-19 and government restrictions had impacted the availability and cost of farm inputs and labour, distribution, and consumption of beans in Eastern and Southern Africa. The immediate impacts were dire in Southern Africa with Central Africa slightly impacted. The production and distribution challenges negatively impacted on frequency and patterns of food consumption in households in Africa. Thus, the pandemic poses a greater risk to food security and poverty in the region. Governments could play a significant role in supporting the needs of smallholder farmers, traders and other actors through provision of subsidized agricultural inputs

Breaking ground: transformative partnerships for inclusive bean breeding in Zimbabwe

Common bean is often considered a woman’s crop because they play important roles from production to marketing. However, breeding programs often focus on farmers without adequate attention to the interconnectedness between gender and other socioeconomic variables and how they influence varietal and trait preferences of other value chain actors. This study analyzed gendered differences in bean production and trade, implications of socioeconomic conditions on bean production and marketing, and the role of partnerships in closing gender gaps in the bean value chain in Zimbabwe. The results obtained from the analysis of survey data collected from 131 farmers and 18 trades revealed beans as a dual-purpose crop for male and female farmers and traders. Varietal and trait preferences were the same for both male and female farmers and traders but were prioritized differently. While female farmers prioritized cooking time, men farmers prioritized biofortification and market traits. Whereas male traders equally preferred price, color, and appearance, female traders prioritized price over color and appearance. Poverty and marital statuses of respondents influenced the number of varieties preferred by male and female farmers. We found that the effectiveness of partnerships in closing gender gaps in marketing is variety specific. While having partners closed the gender gaps in the marketing of the NUA45 variety, such partnerships did not have the same effect on closing gender gaps in the marketing of Cherry, Gloria, and other varieties. The results show that considering socioeconomic characteristics of actors and partnerships can reduce gender disparities in the bean value chain. Therefore, breeding programs should recognize the interconnectedness between socioeconomic variables and gender when developing breeding products

Socio-Technical Innovation Bundles (STIBs) for women’s empowerment and resilience in the agrifood system

The Socio-Technical Innovation Bundles (STIBs) framework, developed by the CGIAR's Initiative on Gender Equality, in collaboration with the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), offers a systematic approach to enhance women's empowerment and resilience in the agrifood system by addressing gender-specific barriers and challenges, combining technological and social innovations in a demand-driven and context-specific manner

Training and field report: Identifying and measuring the effectiveness of different combination of socio-technical innovation bundles on empowerment and resilience in Kenya

The study was conducted by the Harnessing Gender and Social Equality for Resilience in Agrifood Systems (HER+) initiative in collaboration with UU in the context of the UU learning sites and HER+ learning labs. The UU initiative aims to support climate-resilient agriculture and livelihoods in 12 countries in East and Southern Africa by helping millions of smallholders intensify, diversify and reduce the risks in maizebased farming through improved extension services, small and medium enterprise development, supporting governance frameworks and increased investment with a gender and social inclusion lens. While the HER+ initiative Work Package 2 (WP2) of HER+, i.e., EMPOWER: worked with participants in the UU sites to identify and prioritize socio-technical bundled innovations for women’s empowerment and resilience. It provided a space to discuss missing social innovations that often constraint access, control and use of technology often affected by gender and other intersecting elements such as age, ethnicity, education and wealth that limit access to resources, decision-making processes, services, or information. These restrictive norms, policy and hindering environments often limit the uptake and empowerment of women as partners in designing, promoting, and using climate-smart solutions. WP2 contributes to filling the gap by providing evidence about the reasons for women’s limited uptake of innovations and developing decision-support tools to guide the design and implementation of STIBs, particularly paying attention to gender and social inclusion

Bundling gender responsive socio-technical innovations: Unpacking the what and how

The CGIAR Gender Equality Initiative organized a stakeholder workshop on 23 – 24 May 2023. The workshop focused on exploring the technology and innovation bundles that have the potential to revolutionize farming practices and enhance the resilience of women farmers. The workshop officially opened by Dr Nicoline de Haan, Director, CGIAR Gender Impact Platform, served as a forum for diverse stakeholders, including researchers, policymakers, farmers, and industry representatives, to collaborate and envision transformative solutions that address the specific technological needs and challenges women farmers face